Re: How much data in your conlang nouns?

On Sunday 04 Jan 2004 5:28 am, you wrote:
> I was thinking about natlangs and conlangs and how
> nouns are used and it occured to me to tabulate the
> kinds of information embodied in a noun beyond the
> proverbial person, place or thing that it names.  In
> other words, what information do you need before you
> can write down a noun in a sentence in your conlang?
>
> So here's my starter list.  What does your language
> need that I haven't listed?
>
For Gevey:

> 1. Number (such as singular, dual, plural)
>
Singular, paucal and plural, marked on the noun as a suffix

> 2. Gender (such as masc., fem., neut.)
>
Base, masculine and feminine, marked on the noun as an infix with the base
gender (ie unmarked gender) being the default.

> 3. Class or Declension (Varies with language)
> 4. Case (nom., dat., gen., etc. varies with language)
>
Nominative and accusative (shown by associated and dissociated noun forms),
together with the obliques: motive, spatial, temporal and systemic (formed by
affixes). Also the genitive - again an affix. Pronouns have an additional
three classes.

> 5. Social mode (formal, informal, royal, sacred, who
> knows)
>
Absolute, secular and diminutive, but restricted to pronouns. Separate
pronouns used for each instance.

Additionally, Gevey nouns demonstrate something called "status" - inanimate,
simple, internal and external. Status is difficult to explain in one sentence
as it is something different to gender and something similar to articles (in
some circumstances). Any noun can take any status, which is shown by an
affix. See http://www.kalieda.org/gevey/status.html for more info.

Nouns are also divided into two groups - causative nouns and applicative nouns
- which isn't demonstrated on the noun, but does place constraints on which
"voice" (which is not quite the same as IE concepts of voice) the principal
verb may use.

> I'm thinking about another tabulation for verbs.  I'm
> curious to find out where various languages fall in
> the spectrum of variability of nouns and verbs.
>
Gevey principal verbs are affected by:

*voice*
controlled by: subject causation and verb mode
demonstrated by: verb construction
active, incidental and stative voices (plus a special relative voice)

*conjugation*
controlled by: conjunction dependence
demonstrated by: verb infix
primary, secondary and tertiary conjunctions

*tense*
controlled by: action timescale
demonstrated by: verb infix
future, present, past and historic tenses

*status*
controlled by: subject status
demonstrated by: verb suffix
inanimate, simple, internal and external statuses

*number*
controlled by: subject number
demonstrated by: verb suffix
singular, paucal and plural numbers

*completion*
controlled by: action completion
demonstrated by: completion particle
5 particles available

*emphasis*
controlled by: action emphasis
demonstrated by: emphasis particle
8 particles available

*condition* (mode)
controlled by: action condition
demonstrated by: condition particle
(at least) 15 particles available

*transitivity*
controlled by: verb (in)transitivity/copula-ity
demonstrated by: verb preposition
verbs are rigidly divided into groups: transitive, motive, spatial, equative

Secondary verbs can be inflected for:

Primary conjugation participle
Secondary conjugation participle
Tertiary conjugation participle

and

Infinitive design
Subsidiary design
Anominate design
Imperative design

More info on Gevey verbs can be found at
http://www.kalieda.org/gevey/verb.html

> --gary
>
Rik